The Codcast: Salvucci, Aloisi liken Pollack to Sargent

Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack is being likened by two of her predecessors to former governor Frank Sargent for her decision to replace the elevated section of the Massachusetts Turnpike between Boston University and Allston with an at-grade version. Sargent 50 years ago called a halt to the proposed inner belt highway that would have continued the state’s auto-centric approach to transportation and carved up many of Boston’s neighborhoods.
On the Codcast hosted by TransitMatters members Jim Aloisi and Josh Fairchild, former state transportation secretaries Fred Salvucci and Aloisi praised Pollack for deciding not to follow conventional wisdom and rebuild the elevated section of the Turnpike as is, which would have maintained the Pike as a de facto wall separating one part of Boston from another.

“The Allston neighborhood had already been destroyed by the Turnpike,” said Salvucci, who grew up in Brighton. “This is a chance for the first time in more than a half century to fix the huge mistake, the blunder, that was made at that time.”

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Salvucci said Pollack took the key initial step, deciding the state would not repeat its earlier mistake. But Salvucci said Pollack must now follow Sargent’s lead and invest in public transportation options. Where Sargent used the money he saved by not building the inner belt to extend the Red Line to Alewife, to relocate the Orange Line, and to revamp the commuter rail system, Salvucci and Aloisi said Pollack now has to build support for measures that will get people out of their cars and into alternative types of transportation.

“This is perhaps the most significant regional mobility opportunity to face us in a long, long time,” Aloisi said.

The two former secretaries say the 10-year construction timeline for rebuilding the Turnpike will impact a wide swath of the region. “It is going to be miserable to take an automobile from the west into the city. It is going to be miserable for the people in the automobiles from the western suburbs. It’s going to be miserable for people in Allston and Brighton and Cambridge because that’s where the autos are going to spill into,” said Salvucci. “So there’s a potential for unification of these constituencies to insist on the delivery of the kind of regional rail solutions that Secretary Pollack is actually exploring right now. So the table is set for some really positive decisions to come out of this initial very good decision.”

Harry Mattison, an Allston resident who has played an influential role in the long-running discussions about Turnpike reconstruction, said his community is a choke point for some 200,000 people a day coming into the city from the west or trying to go north-south between Dudley and Longwood and Harvard Square.

“The status quo is already horrible,” said Mattison, “and it’s getting worse and worse. In a couple years, when this construction starts, it’s going to go through the roof.”

Salvucci said state officials need to do the same kind of public outreach they did in the early stages of the Big Dig. Out of those meetings came ideas for the Hingham-to-Boston ferry and park-and-ride lots on the South Shore, Salvucci said. “A lot of those ideas built new habits,” Salvucci said. “We need to begin that now [for Allston].”

The transit advocates say the key to building new habits is the proposed West Station, which would serve as a commuter rail stop on the Worcester Line, a possible rail link to Kendall Square and North Station, and a bus link to points south (Boston University) and north (Harvard Square and beyond). They all said commuter rail service should operate all day long on the Worcester Line and not just during the morning and evening peak.

Pollack originally said she thought West Station could wait until 2040 when Harvard University’s development plans in the area (the school owns most of the land) are better known. But when she announced her decision on a design for the elevated section of the Turnpike, she indicated she was open to moving the timetable up.

Salvucci, who teaches at MIT, said the university gathers extensive information on the travel habits of its employees. He said the data indicate people from Acton (close to 20 miles away) are far more likely to ride public transportation to work than residents of nearby Newton. From Acton, MIT employees can ride the Fitchburg commuter rail line to Porter Square and from there take the Red Line to MIT. There is no similar connecting point for Newton residents, so more of them drive.

“West Station effectively is the Porter Square of the network. It allows people to get off of one vehicle and make other public transportation choices, some of them by bus and some of them by rail,” Salvucci said. “People make these decisions individually one at a time. You’ve got to start giving them options now. It already is terrible enough, but it is going to get worse. So you’ve got to start giving them options now to create those possibilities for the future.”

BRUCE MOHL

BEACON HILL

A bill dealing with foundation education budget funding is filed quietly by the House, which seems content to take a back seat — at least publicly — to the governor and the Senate. (CommonWealth) A Berkshire Eagle editorial says the governor’s foundation budget proposal comes up short.

Frank Callahan of the Massachusetts Building Trades Council says the attorney general’s office is falling behind in fighting wage theft and legislation to provide the office with more staff must pass. (CommonWealth)

Inspired by a similar initiative in Vermont, Longmeadow Sen. Eric Lesser wants to pay people up to $10,000 over two years to move to the often sparsely populated western Massachusetts counties of Berkshire, Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin. (WGBH News)

US Rep. Joe Kennedy is cheering on a lot of would-be Democratic presidential candidates, but not endorsing anyone just yet. (Boston Herald)

James Lyons, the new chairman of the Republican State Committee, hobnobbed among the elite members of his party as Ron Kaufman introduced him around the Republican National Committee’s Winter Meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico. (WGBH News)

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

Environmental lawyer Bill Golden, a former state senator, is listing for sale the Nantucket Lightship — docked in Boston Harbor — that he and his wife purchased from the state for $126,100 nearly two decades ago. The couple invested millions of dollars upgrading the 128-foot boat into a luxurious home, which is now on the market for $5.2 million. (Wall Street Journal)

Puma’s decision to move its offices from Westford to Somerville in three years was a surprise to Westford Town Manager Jodi Ross, and the town’s principal assessor, Jean-Paul Plouffe, said the departure of the shoemaker will be a “hit to the local economy.” (Lowell Sun)

EDUCATION

Bob Hildrethsays the college bubble is starting to burst. (CommonWealth)

Using UMass Boston as his example, Jeff Jones of Capstone Development offers up a blueprint for building college dorms. (CommonWealth)

The Sunday Globe asks why Boston, booming with development and tax revenue, can’t seem to fund its schools adequately.

Former town administrator Michael Embury is the sixth to resign from what was once a 15-member Nauset Regional High School Building Committee. Embury resigned from his post as Brewster town administrator in June amid questions about town finances. (Cape Cod Times)

The Lowell Sun recounts the recent history of Lowell’s shifting school district leadership, which included an alleged threat of dismemberment made by a School Committee member. Acting Superintendent Jeannine Durkin has decided not to seek the position on a permanent basis.

José Bou, who works to reduce student absences in the Holyoke Public School system, received his college education in prison, where he received some crucial encouragement from his music history professor. (WBUR News)

HEALTH/HEALTH CARE

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Cambridge Mayor Marc McGovern were impressed by their visit of Canadian safe injection sites, with McGovern saying he supports one in Cambridge. (Spare Change News) Walsh plans to discuss the visit at today’s meeting of the state Harm Reduction Commission. (Boston Herald)

TRANSPORTATION

The MBTAis expected to start laying the groundwork for a fare hike on Monday. (CommonWealth) Overtime at the T soared last year. (Boston Globe)

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

Zoning bylaws may be changing in Plymouthto allow a 15-acre plot of solar-arrays. (Brockton Enterprise)

CASINOS

Globe reporter Mark Arsenaulthas a front-page story in Sunday’s paper on the new MGM casino in Springfield. In a sign of the Globe’s effort to mix things up in a bid to retain readers, it is a first-person account of his recent visit to the casino that reads as much like a Travel section piece as news story, complete with descriptions of his hotel room decor and the brands of local IPA served in the casino’s sports bar. Revenue is below expectations at the casino, and one gambling expert wonders whether the venture was worth it.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS

Executives with a pharmaceutical company that makes fentanylgo on trial in federal court in Boston today, charged with paying kickbacks and bribes to physicians to prescribe the drug. (Boston Globe)

After ousting Leonard Campanello from the position in 2016, Gloucester Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken gets to choose between two finalists to be the city’s next police chief: Manchester Police Chief Edward Conley III, who previously worked for the Chelsea Police, and Baltimore Police Major Inspector James Rhoden, who directs the Inner Harbor Unit, a program dealing with drug addiction, homeless outreach and other initiatives. (Gloucester Daily Times)

Media columnist Margaret Sullivaninterviews a loyal newspaper reader who is having doubts about continuing to read the Mercury News in San Jose, California, as it is “strip-mined” by First Digital Media, which also owns the Boston Herald and Lowell Sun and it trying to buy Gannett. (Washington Post) Dan Kennedywrites about how hedge fund Alden Global Capital, which owns Digital First Media, has inserted itself into the debate about who will be the next owner of Gannett papers. (Media Nation)